R.F: Okay, just before we start there's a few things I would like to mention. First up, the title of the song Kaori sang in the last chapter is called Eternal Snow. Secondly, we will be elaborating a lot of Kaori's abilities in this chapter.

...

R.F: Oh yeah, once again I do not own this anime...goddammit...


Chapter 15: Weeping Ghosts... (Kaori's Story Part 2)

Thanks to Yue, the group was able to get over the mountain just moments before sunrise. Instead of going straight down, the group decided to stop behind a pile of boulders that over looked the gold mines. Yue quickly changed back and jumped on a nearby rock ledge. "I'll try to sneak in and find Rokusuke-san," suggested the kitten.

Kaori looked at Neji who nodded. "Good, go Yue," commanded Kaori. Yue bowed her head at Kaori and began to bound down the mountain swiftly.

"Smart kitten," commented Neji.

"Thank you," replied Kaori, looking at the building below her. "That must the Kurosuki house..."

"Hey, why don't we just forget about saving Rokusuke and Karashi-kun and just barge in and beat up the Kurosuki family!" suggested Naruto.

"Don't get ahead of yourself..." warned Neji, glancing at the boy, who scowled.

"Ok, so what's the plan?"

"Don't forget we have to take into account of Gai-sensei's info-" Lee began to say.

"If I may..." interjected Kaori. "Now that Yue has gone ahead, she can act as our eyes on the inside...I say we should go in swiftly and get information on the outside..."

The three boys looked at Kaori in surprise. "Ok..." they all agreed.


Meanwhile, at the Kurosuki house, Rokusuke was thrown to the ground trembling in fear as he looked at the six cloaked figures staring at him and chuckling evilly. "Raiga-san, we have captured Rokusuke, one of the three men who left the village!" called one of the men.

Rokusuke heard a door creak open behind him and spun around trembling even more.

"Good work..." said the man known as Raiga as he stepped out in to the open.

"It seems like he asked for help from a ninja village," reported another one of the men.

The shortest man of the lot kicked their prisoner in the face. "Speak up! Where did you go?" he demanded.

"That's enough, newbie.." said Raiga.

"Yes, sir!"

Raiga shifted his eyes to the trembling man on the ground who was really starting to regret running away from the restaurant. "Hey, Rokusuke? We're on good terms with the people around the mine right?"

Rokusuke kept silent and averted his eyes as Raiga continued to speak. "When I heard you and your friends ran away, I was so upset...I started to forget all the good times we had together..."

"I'm so sorry! I won't run again!" pleaded Rokusuke, kow towing many times to the Kurosuki head, who apparently wasn't listening.

"I know, why don't we give you a funeral right now?" he suggested in glee.

"NO! Anything but that!"

"Why? Do you hate funerals?"

"Yes! I don't wanna die yet!"

"Really? Well that's all too bad...I happen to like funerals..." Raiga said with a sadistic glint in his eyes. "Think about it, when people are alive, they insult, hurt and betray each other. But all that hatred just disappears at a funeral...That's when all the good memories start to return.."

"NO!" cried Rokusuke as he tried to run, only to get pinned down by the Kurosuki family.

"Shall we boys?" asked Raiga.

"YEAH!"

While the men carried their victim away, Yue stood on the roof top, watching the whole scene with a growl welling up from the bottom of her throat. 'Raiga...it couldn't be...' she thought before disappearing into the air.


Meanwhile, Kaori, Naruto, Lee and Neji watched from their hiding place as an old man suddenly collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Four men in dark brown cloaks walked up to the man who looked at them in fear and began to bow his head, his apologies were audible to be heard by the gang. Naruto was about to make a move but was stopped by Kaori who placed a hand on his shoulder. Naruto glared at the girl who shook her head. "Please understand, Neji-senpai is the leader and he is the one who tells us to move."

"But if we don't move, the old man is going to die!"

"Leave this to me, Naruto-kun!" said Lee getting up his hiding spot and dashing the the mountain. Kaori's face faulted.

"Idiot..." she muttered.

Due to Lee's speed, it was only seconds for the boy to reach the old man and knock all four cloaked men out. Lee quickly signalled to the others, who began to climb down. When they reached the foot of the mountain, instead showing gratitude, they found the old man to be twice as afraid, looking at them in despair. "What've you done?"

Naruto smiled good naturedly and held out his flask to offer water, only to have it slapped out of his hands. "Hey! What's wrong with you?"

"Please! Hit me! Kick me! Anything! Knock me out, please!" the old man pleaded desperately, confusing the genin.

"Excuse me?" asked Naruto.

"If you won't, I will!" the old man said as he began hitting his face with his fists.

"Oji-san, please stop," said Kaori calmly as she walked up to the man and held his fists tightly. "You're afraid aren't you?"

"Of course I am! If the Kurosuki family finds out I'm okay, God knows what they'll do to me!"

CLANG! The sound of a gong rang out suddenly, causing the man to jump in fear. The rest followed his gaze towards the Kurosuki house.

"What was that? Were we spotted?" asked Neji.

"It's the funeral gong..." replied the old man sadly.

"Funeral?" echoed the others in confusion.

"It's for those who betray the Kurosuki boss, Raiga, he has them buried while they are still alive..."

Suddenly the boys heard a loud thump and looked down to see once calm Kaori on her knees with a shocked expression on her face as she tried to choke out something. Neji's sharp eyes saw small sparks of lightning flashing around the girl. "K-kurosuki Raiga..." they heard her mutter.

"Oi, Kaori! Are you okay?" Naruto asked worriedly, grabbing on to her shoulders and was about to shake her when a sharp tingling pain shot up his arms, making the boy jump and yell in pain, snapping her out of her daze with a gasp.

"Naruto-kun! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" apologized the girl fervently.

Naruto, Lee and Neji looked at Kaori in surprise. Since the time they met her, this was first time the girl showed genuine emotion in front of them. "I-its cool, Kaori-san...I'm good..." Naruto managed to say, recovering from his shock.

"Kaori-sama!" called Yue as she came running up to her mistress. "You have to hurry! They are going to bury Rokusuke-san, alive!"

Everybody gasped and looked at each other before nodding. "Let's go!" said Neji as the group followed him with Yue leading the way.

It wasn't long until the kitten brought them to what appears to be a grave yard. The group looked around them with horrified expressions at the numerous mounds around them. Quickly ducking behind a particularly large mound, the group poked their heads up a bit to see a group of cloaked men in a funeral procession march carrying a silver coffin on their shoulders. Neji quickly activated his Byakugan to look inside it. "It is him, and he's still alive," said Neji after confirming the victim's identity. "If we take care of the guys around him, we could save him."

"Now, we're talking," said Naruto with Lee nodding in agreement.

It was then, Lee noticed tears streaming down Kaori's and Yue's faces."What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can see them. Everybody is crying...they are pleading for us to save him...it's so sad, they are bounded to the earth..." whispered Kaori.

"Who?" asked Neji turning to the girl in confusion.

"The victims, their souls are crying out in agony...the pain is agonizing..."

"The victims? Y-you mean..." Naruto began to ask in fear.

"Yue.." said Kaori.

"Hai, Kaori-sama..." replied the kitten, who began to glow blue slightly. "Spirit vision..." she muttered as she tapped each of the boys' hands with her paw, leaving a glowing paw print.

The boys had to do everything in their power not to scream as their eyes glowed blue and they began to see pale transparent hands reaching out of the mounds as if trying to get themselves free. The freaked out boys quickly scampered away towards Kaori. "What is this?" Lee demanded, trying to keep his voice low. Suddenly, the disturbing image disappeared as well as the marks on their hands.

"Yue has the ability to force spirit vision on others among other things, since she only lightly tapped you guys the visions didn't last long.." explained Kaori, wiping the tears from her eyes. "As for me, I can already see them naturally..."

"As much as you're freaking me out, we have a client to save!" said Neji as he took out a few smoke bombs and threw them as hard as he could towards the men. The bombs landed at the groups feet and exploded in to smoke, surprising them. The four ninja decided that it was then to make their ambush and jumped out of their hiding places.

The men quickly jumped out of the smoke and threw off their cloaks with the exception of one who began to flee the scene. "GET THEM!" one of them yelled. Blades began to grow out of their gloves as they rushed towards the attacking ninja.

"Kaori, Yue, take out the ones on the right!"

"HAI!" replied the two as they jumped in to the air. They both snarled menacingly as Kaori kicked one of the men in the face while Yue unsheathed her razor sharp claws and slashed another across the face. Kaori landed on all fours and launched herself forward while forming a few hand seals. "Ninja art: Lightning Dance!"

"Take this you little bitch!" cried out one of the five men charging at Kaori who swiped at her with his metal claws only to have her disappear into thin air.

"Where'd she go?" the men asked looking around them. Suddenly, Kaori appeared behind one of them and kicked him in the head, only to vanish and strike out again at another. Just like the technique was named, Kaori kept appearing and disappearing like a lightning flash as she beat up her opponents. Yue on the other hand found her self getting cornered to a wall while looking terrified at three Kurosuki members with scratched up faces who chuckled evilly as they began to crack their knuckles. "Payback time, ya' little runt!" one of them said.

"I think not..." said Yue, her terrified expression replaced with a smirk as she jumped up crying, "Beast Form!" before turning into a cloud smoke. A ferocious roar was heard as large gray leopard emerged from the cloud and sank it's teeth into one of the men with a sickening crunch followed by the man's agonizing scream as his shoulder blade got crushed by Yue's powerful jaws.


Note: Yue's Beast form is simply like her Winged Beast form, except that she looks more like a regular leopard, only gray in color with normal fangs.


The other two screamed and tried to make a break for it but their efforts were in vain as Yue pounced on both of them and nearly half-mauled them to death faster before they could scream 'Bloody Murder'.

"Jyuuken!" yelled Neji, striking out at his opponents swiftly with his clan's fighting style while Naruto created four shadow clones and performed an 'Uzumaki Naruto combo' on the next three guys with Lee finishing of his lot just as quickly.

"I found the last one!" Lee said, pointing to the guy who fleed just now who was hiding behind a rock.

Realizing that he'd been found, the man yelped and turned to run only to come inches face to face with the gray leopard known as Yue. The man stared at the blood dripping from Yue's fangs in horror as the leopard growled at him.

"Nyan!" went Yue.

"HIYAAAAAAAA...!" screamed the man as his eyeballs rolled back and he fell backwards in faint.

Everybody looked the unconscious figure in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me..." the all said in unison.

"Well, that was easy," remarked Yue transforming back into her kitten form and using the guy's cloak to wipe the blood from her mouth. As she did so, the hood of the cloak slipped back to reveal a young man with long brown hair tied in a ponytail. Lee gasped in surprise as he recognized the guy.

"Karashi-san!" he exclaimed, causing the rest of his team to look at him. Kaori shifted her gaze to look down at Karashi.

"Heh, so he's Karashi-san..." she muttered, nudging him awake with her foot. Karashi stirred and opened his eyes to see the four genin looking down at him, causing him to quickly bolt upright into a sitting position. Lee wasted no time in confronting him.

"Karashi-san! Is it true you joined the Kurosuki family?" asked Lee.

Karashi frowned and turned his head away, folding his arms and crossing his legs. "Hmph! So what if I did?"

It was then Yue sensed anger radiating Kaori as she looked up to see Kaori's pupils turning into slits. Her sharp hears detected a small growl emitting from the base of her mistress's throat while she saw electricity sparks appearing around her fists.

"Raiga-sama is amazing!" declared Karashi proudly. "He chased out the Akudaikan family and liberated the villa-"THWACK! "ARRRGH!" screamed the guy as he rolled backwards a few times before writhing in pain while his face.

"Oi, Kaori! Have you gone mental?" demanded a shocked Naruto.

Kaori ignored Naruto as she glared at Karashi with such a menacing look that the guys backed of slightly. "Raiga-sama?...Heh, don't ever mention such a filthy name in front of me again..." she hissed, her words laced with poison.

"What is your deal, bitch? How dare you speak off Ra-" ZAP! BOOM! A small, burnt hole appeared in the ground just inches from Karashi's feet. The freaked out man quickly got up and scurried behind Rock Lee for protection.

Kaori blew lightly to disperse the smoke wafting from two of her finger tips. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?..." Kaori said giving Karashi a killer glare, causing the man to squeak in fright.

"Kaori-san, please calm down, let me handle this..." said Lee before turning to the frightened man behind him. The girl narrowed her eyes and turned to walk away with Yue trailing behind her towards one of the men Yue almost ripped to shreds. Neji decided to follow her out of concern, leaving Naruto and Lee to talk some sense into Karashi. He stood behind and watched as she knelt down and began to form familiar hand seals which drew out green colored chakra that coated her hands. Neji blinked in surprise as Kaori began to heal the gaping, bloody wounds on the man's body.

"I thought Cori-chan was the only one who knew Medical Ninjutsu?" asked Neji, only to get replied with silence.

Yue turned to look at Neji while Kaori continued her work. "Well, Cori-sama is indeed the most adept at healing techniques, but Kaori-sama and Hikari-sama both decided to learn at least the basic healing techniques just in case for times such as now," explained the kitten as Kaori moved on to the next guy.

Neji nodded in understanding and decided to get to the point. "What do you know about the Kurosuki leader?" he asked, careful not to use his name after recalling her reaction just now. The boy could see Kaori's shoulders tense up as she completed healing Yue's victims and stood up deactivating the healing technique.

"It's not something I can easily talk about, senpai...I'll tell you when it's time..." she said avoiding Neji's gaze. It was then the group heard a loud thumping sound followed by muffled screams from the coffin that lay forgotten amidst the choas.

"Oh SNAP!" the two heard Naruto yell.

"Yabai! Rokusuke-san!" exclaimed Yue as she and Naruto quickly raced over to the coffin with Kaori and Neji not far behind. They quickly freed the man who took in a deep breath as he sat up and apologized fervently for his actions. In the meantime, Neji and Kaori had learned that Lee managed to knock some sense into Karashi, literally. Suddenly, Yue's eyes became slits as her fur began to bristle. A menacing snarl escaped from the kitten's jaws as she turned to look up at a mountain ledge. Just then, Kaori felt a piercing look bearing into her back as she spun around following Yue's gaze.

"Kaori-san? Is there anything wrong?" asked Lee.

Neji took one glance at her and knew what was up. "Someone's watching us..." he said following Kaori's and Yue's gaze. "It's probably him...up there!" the boy said a word, Yue quickly transformed into her Winged Beast form and flew up carrying the genin team on her back, leaving Rokusuke and Karashi with bug eyed, jaw dropped expressions.

The team was up on the hill top in seconds and jumped off the winged leopard's back. Yue remained in her Winged Beast Form so that she was prepared for combat. The group looked around to see nothing but wide open space. "Nobody's here..." muttered Neji.

"Where did he go?" asked Naruto, tensing himself for just in case.

All of a sudden, a large cloud of thick mist appeared out of no where and surrounded the genin, impairing their vision. "What's happening?" asked Naruto again as braced himself along with the others. Kaori could feel fear rising within her chest as she clenched her fists. Unknown to the others, a man chuckled evilly as a dark silhouette appeared in the mist.

"Ninpo: Kiri gakure no Jutsu..." the man said as he continued chuckling.

Kaori's breathing stopped momentarily, her eyes growing large as she felt a familiar presence. Rock Lee quickly flipped a small pocketbook. "This technique is a stealth move used by Mist-nin..." he read aloud.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he tried to look around in vain. "Damn, I can see a darn thing in this mist!"

"Neji, can you try locate the enemy with Byakugan?" asked Rock Lee turning to his friend who already had his bloodline limit activated.

"I've been trying from the start but I can't see anything!" growled the Hyuuga in frustration.


Byakugan Vision

Neji's eyes searched the whole circumference of the area with his 360 degrees field of vision. His searches came up futile when nothing turned up.


"I can't see anything!" he exclaimed, this time adding confusion to his frustration.

Naruto and Lee looked shock. "But that's impossible!" said Lee in disbelief. "Even with the Byakugan's enhanced vision, Neji still can't see?"

"How's that possible?" asked Naruto looking at Neji.

"It's not, there shouldn't be any technique that could block the Byakugan..." explained Neji, still keeping his eyes peeled.


Meanwhile the mystery man watched in amusement from his hiding spot. "How are they Ranmaru?" he asked.

"Amazing, one of them can see people's chakra while another one of them appears to be a large cat of some sort giving off a strange energy," replied a voice from under his cloak.

"So he can see us..." said the man in concern.

"Don't worry, my powers are stronger than his, we're perfectly hidden," the voice said reassuringly. "So what now?"

The man smiled. "The Katabami people are depending on me. After all, I have to protect the peace don't I?"

"Are you going to give them a funeral?"

"Why would I? I have no memories of them...hmm?"

"What's wrong, Raiga-san?"

Raiga smirked as he felt a familiar energy. "Well what do you know? It seems that an old acquaintance of mine is with them, and I've planning a special funeral for this one in years..." he said whipping out a pair of hooked swords.

"Ninpo: Thunder Fangs!" he exclaimed, banging the swords together. Electricity was created instantly as the power intensified and became a large pillar of blue lightning that shot into the sky, catching the the teams attention.

"What the hell is that?" Naruto asked in shock as the sky suddenly became dark and ominous. Thunder clapped loudly in the air, drowning out his voice.

"Thunder...FALL!" commanded a male voice.

"WATCH OUT!" cried out Yue as she spread out her huge wings and folded them above the genin just as a huge bolt of lightning struck down towards them.

The team covered their ears as they heard Yue roar loudly in pain while they saw lightning getting deflected all over the place. "Yue!" the team cried as the leopard removed her wings swayed a little with her body surrounded by static electricity.

"I'm fine...I've faced worse..." the leopard replied, shaking the electricity out of her fur as if it was water.

A light thud of landing footsteps caught the genin team's attention as they turned to see a cloaked man. The boys quickly took their stances except for Kaori who turned pale. "No..." she voiced in a half-whisper when her eyes caught the stranger's own.

"My,my...it certainly has been such long time hasn't it, Kaori-chan?..." the person asked in a mock cheerful fashion. "I'd recognize that wretched face of yours anywhere, how you've grown!"

The boys looked at Kaori to the man and back to Kaori again with looks of shock and confusion. Yue braced herself, growling. The girl in question stared at the man in terrified silence with eyes filled with fear. The man chuckled. "What's the matter, Kaori-chan? Surely you haven't forgotten, my face, have you? You little murdering demon.." he asked pulling back his hood to reveal a tan skinned man with dark green hair.

Kaori gasped loudly as all the blood drained from her face when she recognized the one face she had been hoping not to see. The face of the shadowed man from her nightmares. Multiple vivid gruesome images from a certain night flashed in her mind spontaneously. Ba-Dump! A shadowed man standing over her with a bloody hooked sword. BA-dump! A young dark green-haired miko lay dead on a patch of grass at a young Kaori's feet with a huge gash across her back. Ba-DUMP! Kaori as a child in her own miko robes, blood spattered across her face and clothes. BA-DUMP! A close up on Kaori's blood spattered face. A huge mixture of fear, grief and insanity could be seen in her eyes. BA-DUMP!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!" screamed Kaori, clutching her head and closing her eyes as she suddenly sank to her knees. Her scream vibrated through the air, piercing everyone's eardrums.


R.F: 0_0 Dear GOD! Stay Tuned to the next chapter, people!